Game Review: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2)

While it has certainly been a while since we've seen the last Persona game on a PlayStation system (and in fact Japan has been enjoying Persona 3 for a year already), this latest RPG from Atlus proves that the PS2 still has strong games to offer and that the JRPG world can still present a compelling experience. Everything about this game, from the night and day gameplay to the method for unlocking "Personas," seems fresh. While you may be worried about your social life during your days at your new boarding school, at night you're locked into desperate combat with the forces of darkness. When things seem at their worst, you press a gun to your head and pull the trigger—unleashing a potent second form. The game bounces from the lighthearted to the disturbing, and impressively the entire experience still seems cohesive. This isn't a one-note game.

As your character (who is nameless until you give him one) explores his new school and home he finds out that there is a hidden hour in each day. This "dark hour" takes places between midnight and one a.m., and in this time dark beings feed on the minds and souls of the unsuspecting citizens of the town. Our hero is one of the few who can stay awake during the dark hour, and in fact has some hidden powers that will allow him to fight back. Other students at the school share these traits, and belong to a group called SEES that works together to fight the Shadows. At times it feels almost like a gothic Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, but instead of calling on their robot-friends to fight the big fights they have to put a "bullet" in their own brain with a special pistol. It's a grisly effect, and always feels painful and hard to watch.

While the days during school may seem boring at first, you level up your Personas by building relationships and pursuing them so you can be more effective in combat. Your nights are spent in the land of Tartarus, a sort of never-ending Dark Tower you have to fight your way up, and will benefit greatly from the work you put into your days. Of course, you can also elect to not fight on some nights, it's up to you. You can go through your days quickly or spend more time exploring and building friendships, so this is much more open-ended than most RPGs. The day-to-day progression also gives you a better sense for the passage of time then most games of this kind.

The night time fights are worth talking about, because the battle system is also different than what you find in other RPGs. First, you can see the enemies before they attack you: they show up as blobs on the screen. You can even flank them and deliver the first blow to begin the fight. This should help those of us who absolutely hate random encounters. The battle scenes are basically dungeon crawls, so there can be some tedious grinding as you go through the game, but the ability to initiate fights is welcome. The fights are also over more quickly, since you don't have direct control over your team. You tell them what characteristics to have in battle (for instance, you can set one person up to be a healer) and they'll do it. Some people will love this system, others may be frustrated, but with the large amount of Personas to deal with in the game it works well.

This is a very inviting RPG with some great new thoughts on the genre. It has been a refreshing change of pace from what I normally review, and reminded me of why I used to love RPGs in the first place: story and setting. This is a dark world you're in, but when that becomes oppressive, you remember that you have a test to study for the next day at school. In this game, both are equally important, and that's okay with me.